Hamas Attack Sparks Israel-Gaza War
Smoke billows over a Palestinian apartment complex following an Israeli air strike on October 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)
Israel declared war against Hamas, a terrorist group based in Palestine, on October 8 after the largest assault against the country in recent memory. Hamas infiltrated 22 southern Israeli towns and army bases, kidnapped at least 150 civilians and soldiers, and rained 5,000 rockets upon Israeli cities on October 7. Fighters crossed into Israel by land, air, and sea, indiscriminately killing civilians. Reports of butchered bodies, massacres, and the dragging of women, children, and the elderly from their homes now proliferate, including when terrorists shot 260 people at an Israeli music festival. President Biden has also confirmed that at least 27 Americans are among the dead, with 14 more feared to be held hostage.
Since the original attack, reporters have documented over 2,000 airstrikes by Israel, and the country has cut off access to electricity, food, water, and fuel in the Gaza Strip, the home of about 30,000 Hamas fighters—but also more than 2 million Palestinians. To complicate matters, on October 13, Israel ordered all 1.1 million residents of northern Gaza to evacuate within 24 hours. Some areas in northern Gaza are among the most densely populated in the world, and evacuation routes have been bombarded by airstrikes. The UN is warning of a humanitarian disaster.
Meanwhile, Hamas—whose stated goal is to destroy Israel—is threatening to kill hostages if Israel targets civilian areas without warning Gazans. The terrorists, who receive weaponry, intelligence, and financial support from Iran, have called on Arabs across Israel and Palestine to rise up in resistance—50 years after the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when surrounding Arab states launched a surprise attack on Israel.
Among Hamas’s motives are Israel’s imprisonment of Palestinian militants; Egypt and Israel’s 16-year-long blockade of Gaza, which has left 50 percent of the population unemployed; the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes; and violations of a status quo agreement that prevents Jewish prayer at the holy Aqsa Mosque.
After the initial assault, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proclaimed, “We will turn all the places that Hamas hides in and operates from into rubble.” Israel announced on October 10 that it had regained control of its South and the Gaza border, and it has now mobilized 360,000 reservists. As of October 14, the conflict has killed over 1,300 Israelis and 2,200 Palestinians, and over one million Gazans have fled—more than half of Gaza’s population.
The attack, which fell on Simchat Torah, a major Jewish holiday, comes at a sensitive time for Israel, a Jewish state created after the horrors of World War II. The government was already facing growing distrust after reducing judiciary powers, and it was also engaged in critical negotiations with Saudi Arabia to earn recognition from the state. The ambushes risk detracting from Israeli trust in its intelligence and military preparedness, as soldiers were previously devoting their energy to another Palestinian territory, the West Bank. However, opposition leaders and critics are moving to join a unified government and restart service amid the shock of the assaults, hinting at a new sense of political unity.
Many Palestinians have compared Israeli bombardment in Gaza to the Nakba, or “catastrophe,” which refers to the forced displacement of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Their grievances extend to recent years, as the UN Security Council has declared that expanding Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are illegal under international law. The Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the West Bank, is dismayed about the “international silence” concerning Israel’s “unrestrained attacks.”
In support of Israel, the United States deployed the USS Ford and USS Eisenhower aircraft carriers to the eastern Mediterranean on stand-by, and the two countries are engaging in a “full intelligence synchronization.”
Experts assess that Israel’s retaliation might provoke involvement from other terrorist groups—like the Lebanon-based Hezbollah—as well as risk deteriorating its newly forming relations with Arab nations. Nevertheless, Israel’s stated goal in Gaza is no less than the complete elimination of Hamas leadership.